127 Hours

Synopsis

"127 Hours" is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolate canyon in Utah. Over the next five days, Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate...

Production Details

Synopsis

"127 Hours" is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolate canyon in Utah. Over the next five days, Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers, family, and the last two people he ever had the chance to meet? A visceral thrilling story that will take an audience on a never before experienced journey and prove what we can do when we choose life.

SHOWTIMES

127 Hours

127 Hours, the new film from Slumdog Millionaire's Academy Award-winning writer-director duo Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle, feels like it was made in the titular time frame. The movie is choppy and fast-paced like the adventures of its daredevil protagonist Aron Ralston, who amputated his own arm after an accident in the cavernous regions of Moab, Utah, in 2003. This kinetic style of filmmaking (similar to how Slumdog was produced) succeeds in artistically recreating the horrific events of those five painful days, but prevents the audience from developing an essential emotional connection with the character and renders the movie limp with more style than substance.

The story begins with Mr. Ralston's (played adequately by James Franco) ritualistic preparation for intense outdoors activities. He ignores his mother's phone call (and it's clearly not the first time he's done this) so he can begin his extreme expedition that much faster. This selfish attribute is true to the character and foreshadows his eventual arc, but Boyle stumbles around with irrelevant narrative detours involving a pair of female thrill-seekers and a barely-seen sister and ex-girlfriend. These subplots are ultimately counter-productive and feel out-of-place.

Instead of providing the character's backstory through a traditional prologue, we learn about Ralston's past through his own sleep/food/water-deprived hallucinations while he's stuck beneath a boulder at the bottom of a canyon. In this grim, ill-fated state, the audience is supposed to feel remorseful and on a basic level of human compassion, we do. However, it's difficult to sympathize with a character as arrogant and narcissistic as Ralston, who admits that he's brought this situation on himself.

In terms of craft, Boyle is at the top of his game. Aron's spiritual breakthrough is dramatized by surreal visual sequences that deliver the most moving imagery in the entire film. His use of sound effects particularly enhanced the harrowing experience, as do the realistic prosthetics used to depict his bloody sacrifice.

Though the film has the tension and suspense that made similarly-themed survival tales like Castaway and Rescue Dawn moving, it lacks an introduction that builds a bond between audience and character, debilitating the effect of Aron's eventual triumph. Many will rejoice when they see Ralston emerge from his mountainous prison a wiser and more appreciative man, but there's never much reason to root for him throughout the picture unless you're simply hoping for a happy ending.

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